Refract house shines brightly

By Jesus Diaz

Team California huddled together anxiously awaiting the announcement of the winner. That's when they heard these words: "It is my honor to announce that the third place overall award in the 2009 Solar Decathlon goes to Team California."

The eruption of cheers was deafening, almost completely drowning out the background music of Black Eyed Peas' "I Gotta Feeling." As Team California jumped on stage to accept their award, the song's lyrics rang true -- it was a good night.

From Washington, D.C., Santa Clara and the California College of the Arts celebrated their third-place finish at the U.S. Department of Energy's 2009 Solar Decathlon last Friday. The team also took home first place honors in architecture and communication categories. It placed second in engineering and third in market viability.

The competition lasted eight days and featured 20 teams composed of universities from all over the world, including Team Germany and Illinois who placed first and second, respectively.

"Ranking consistently in the top three of nearly every contest, this team excelled in the most prestigious subjective contests," said U.S. Department of Energy Deputy Secretary Daniel Poneman, who announced all the winners during the awards ceremony.

"This team broke out of the box and masterfully executed interior and exterior spaces, along with consistent and high quality learning experience to visitors. The team really embodies what this competition is all about."

Judges described Team California's house as masterfully executed, exquisite and well designed.

"We decided to build a home that was functional, beautiful and unique," said Preet Anand, who worked on digital communications and water systems. "A green home doesn't have to be a sacrifice and we proved that."

Under construction from June through September, the third-place finish marked months of difficult work. After the Refract House, as it was named by the builders, was fully-built in California, it was then taken apart to be shipped off and re-built in the nation's capital.

"We beat Cornell, Virginia Tech and schools from around the world that had very competitive houses," said Jeff Seago, who worked on the house as an undergraduate before starting graduate school in the fall.

Seago was one of six thermo design engineers who also worked on the mechanical engineering. He explained that other teams had professional contractors and graduate students who built their houses. This was not the case for Team California, comprised of undergraduate students who personally built Refract House.

"There were many challenges but as undergrads, we did the best we could and we excelled," said Anand, who also maintained an online blog throughout the building process and competition.

This year, unlike Santa Clara's previous appearance, students from the California College of the Arts joined the team.

In 2007, Santa Clara participated alone at the biannual competition and also finished third.

"It was kind of artists versus engineers but at the end, we came up with the compromise that worked out the best for our project," said Seago of his California College of the Arts teammates.

Sophomore Allison Kopf, project manager said: "Winning first in architecture was one of the most challenging because we had different disciplines and had to put our ideas together. It was also the most rewarding."

Some students are currently still in Washington, D.C., deconstructing the house for return shipment to California. Others, like Seago, had to leave due to midterms and other school activities.

"We don't get school credit for this and we're all behind in our classes," said Anand. "We're trying to get Santa Clara on the map on what this school can do and what California can do for sustainability."

The house featured a fully-integrated solar roof that was the main source of power of the house and a unique water system that reduced potable water waste.

The house's solar panels produce an extensive amount of power and the energy is then sent to a grid where is it stored. During the nighttime, that energy is used to power the Refract home.

Kopf also explained that building the house was based on a self-taught process and that if they were able to complete project of this rigor, then any student can accomplish the same. "We didn't build the house to win the competition; we built a house that we're proud of and we're humbled by the experience and the house we built," she said.

Said Seago: "Anyone can do this. We were all undergrads and we placed third. This was the most valuable experience of my whole college career."

Contact Jesus Diaz at (408) 554-4546 or jadiaz@scu.edu.